Buffalo Bills avoid huge mistake with failed Antonio Brown trade

ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 11: Antonio Brown #84 of the Pittsburgh Steelers lines up against Stephon Gilmore #24 of the Buffalo Bills during the second half at New Era Field on December 11, 2016 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY - DECEMBER 11: Antonio Brown #84 of the Pittsburgh Steelers lines up against Stephon Gilmore #24 of the Buffalo Bills during the second half at New Era Field on December 11, 2016 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

It seems which each passing day the Buffalo Bills failed attempt at trading for Antonio Brown looks like a blessing.

Entering the offseason, the Buffalo Bills were looking to upgrade the wide receiver position and on a Thursday night in early March it appeared they found that in Antonio Brown. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted that the Bills were closing in on a deal for Brown.

The idea of a trade was short lived and within 12 hours the Bills disputed the report and Antonio Brown himself took to social media to make his feelings known.

Brown eventually was traded to the Oakland Raiders for a third and fifth round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft and as part of the deal the Raiders gave Brown a three-year, $50.125 million contract.

However, since that point the Raiders’ new wide receiver has had one of the more bizarre summers which included suffering severe frostbite from a cryotherapy treatment, arriving to training camp in a hot air balloon and a fight with the NFL in regards to the helmet he could wear.

The last straw seemingly came this week when the Raiders fined Brown over $50,000 and after posting it on Instagram, nearly got in a fight with Raiders’ GM Mike Mayock. These are only a few of the highlights of Browns’ summer but for a more in-depth timeline Paul Gutierrez of ESPN provides one here.

This recent run-in appears it will keep Antonio Brown out of Week 1, according to Rapoport.

For the Bills, watching these distractions this summer has to have them feeling good that this is not their problem.

But what if it was? What if the trade for Antonio Brown did go through? This is likely what the 2019 Buffalo Bills would have looked like.

The first thing that would be different, and for the sake of this hypothetical let’s assume the Bills sent the Steelers the same compensation that the Raiders did, which was a third round pick (66th overall) and a fifth round pick (147th overall). This likely would have meant the Bills would have sent their first third round pick (74th overall) and their fifth round pick (147th overall).

These picks ended up being running back Devin Singletary and linebacker Vosean Joseph. While the Bills won’t have Joseph this year, who was placed on injured reserve, Singletary is expected to play a major role in this offense after the team released LeSean McCoy last weekend.

The other component of the Brown to Raiders deal was the new contract he received. While it was a three year deal, in 2019 his cap hit amounts to $14,958,333. The Bills had the cap space to give him a similar deal but it would have likely meant the Bills would not have signed John Brown, with a cap hit of $7,500,000, and Cole Beasley, who has a cap hit this season of $6,900,000. These two receivers deals have a combined cap hit of $14,400,000.

This Bills’ front office and coaching staff do not have any patience when it comes to distractions in their locker room and likely would take a similar route to Oakland. It would have probably resulted in a suspension to start the season. If this ended up being the case, this offense would enter this season with the same starting wide receivers from last year with Zay Jones, Robert Foster and Isaiah McKenzie.

While Antonio Brown would have been a star to excite the fan base and when he is invested he is one of best wide receivers in the game that could have helped this offense. However, with the off-the-field distractions combined with the losses of John Brown, Cole Beasley, Devin Singletary and Vosean Joseph it is an easy case to make that the Buffalo Bills are in a much better position thanks to the failed trade for Antonio Brown.

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